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"It has been reported that pregnant American Indian women are up to 8.7 times more likely to be diagnosed with opioid dependency or abuse compared to the next highest race/ethnicity; and it has been reported that in some communities upwards of 1 in 10 pregnant American Indian women has a diagnosis of opioid dependency or abuse." - Cherokee Nation lawsuit against drug retailers and wholesalersApril 2017 - The Cherokee Nation has launched a lawsuit (the first of its kind ever)against America's largest drug retailers and distributors.

The court action accuses those companies (including the retail giants Walgreens and Wal-Mart Stores)of being responsible for the opioid crisis and the epidemic of overdose deaths."Tribal nations have survived disease, removal from our homelands, termination and other adversities, and still we prospered. However, I fear the opioid epidemic is emerging as the next great challenge of our modern era," said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker. "As we fight this epidemic in our hospitals, our schools and our Cherokee homes, we will also use our legal system to make sure the companies, who put profits over people while our society is crippled by this epidemic, are held responsible for their actions."

PETITION1. There is an epidemic of prescription opioid abuse sweeping through Indiancountry and across the United States. It is an epidemic of unprecedented proportions in the recenthistory of the Cherokee Nation, leaving in its wake a substantial loss of resources, addiction,disability, and death.

2. Today in the Cherokee Nation, as elsewhere in the country, prescription opioidsare more deadly than heroin. According to reports from the National Institutes of Health,prescription opioids killed 22,598 people in the United States in 2015, as compared to 12,989deaths from heroin. Prescription opioids are the driving force behind skyrocketing rates of drugoverdose deaths, which now surpass car accident deaths nationwide. In 2016, the U.S. SurgeonGeneral visited with tribal representatives in Oklahoma, where most Cherokee Nation citizensreside, and declared that the "prescription opioid epidemic that is sweeping across the U.S. hashit Indian country particularly hard.'

3. The brunt of the epidemic could have been, and should have been, prevented bythe defendant companies acting within the U.S. drug distribution industry, which are some of thelargest corporations in America. These drug wholesalers and retailers have profited greatly byallowing the Cherokee Nation to become flooded with prescription opioids.

4. The distribution industry is supposed to serve as a “check' in the drug deliverysystem, i.e., by securing and monitoring opioids at every step as they travel through commerce,protecting them from theft, and refusing to fulfill suspicious or unusual orders by downstreampharmacies, doctors, or patients. But Defendants utterly failed in this duty; they have habituallyturned a blind eye to known or knowable problems in their own supply chains.

5. By doing so, Defendants created conditions in which vast amounts of opioidshave flowed freely from manufacturers to abusers and drug dealers-with distributors regularlyfulfilling suspicious orders from pharmacies, and pharmacies regularly ignoring “red flags' inprescription presentation that would require further investigation and resolution beforedispensing the pills.

6. This kind of behavior by Defendants has allowed massive amounts of opioid pillsto be diverted from legitimate channels of distribution into the illicit black market in quantitiesthat have fueled the opioid epidemic in the Cherokee Nation. This is the phenomenon known as'opioid diversion. Acting against their common law and statutory duties, Defendants havecreated an environment in which drug diversion can flourish. As a result, unauthorized opioidusers in and around the Cherokee Nation have ready access to illicit sources of diverted opioids.

7. For years Defendants and their agents' have had the ability to substantially reducethe death toll and adverse economic consequences of opioid diversion in the Cherokee Nationincluding the deaths of hundreds of Cherokee citizens and expenditures of hundreds of millionsof dollars by the Cherokee Nation in dealing with the problem-but the Defendants pursuedcorporate revenues instead. All the Defendants in this action share responsibility for perpetuatingthe epidemic.

8. Defendants have foreseeably caused damages to the Cherokee Nation includingthe costs of providing: (1) medical care, additional therapeutic and prescription drug purchases,and other treatments for patients suffering from opioid-related addiction or disease, includingoverdoses and deaths; (2) counseling and rehabilitation services; (3) treatment of infants bornwith opioid-related medical conditions; (4) welfare for children whose parents suffer fromopioid-related disability or incapacitation; and (5) law enforcement and public safety relating tothe opioid epidemic within the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee Nation has also sufferedsubstantial damages relating to the lost productivity of Cherokee Nation citizens and businesses.

9. The Cherokee Nation, through Attorney General Todd Hembree, brings this civilaction under the statutory and common law of the Cherokee Nation for injunctive relief,compensatory damages, statutory damages, punitive damages, and any other relief allowed bylaw against the Defendant opioid drug distributors and retailers that, by their actions, haveknowingly or negligently distributed and dispensed prescription opioid drugs within theCherokee Nation in a manner that foreseeably injured, and continues to injure, the CherokeeNation and its citizens.

This lawsuit is the first of its kind filed in the United States, as it seeks to hold distributors and retailers responsible for perpetuating the opioid crisis in the 14 counties in northeast Oklahoma that comprise the Cherokee Nation. Experts expect other jurisdictions to file similar claims as communities grapple with the financial and social burdens of the opioid epidemic.

“Tribal nations have survived disease, removal from our homelands, termination and other adversities, and still we prospered. However, I fear the opioid epidemic is emerging as the next great challenge of our modern era,” said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker. “As we fight this epidemic in our hospitals, our schools and our Cherokee homes, we will also use our legal system to make sure the companies, who put profits over people while our society is crippled by this epidemic, are held responsible for their actions.”

Pharmacies and opioid distributers, under federal law, have a responsibility to alert regulators of suspicious orders and illegitimate prescriptions. Suspicious activities would include: when a distributor fills a single pharmacy’s orders that are suddenly thousands of pills above the average or are disproportionate to the size of the area’s population; patterns of employee theft; and pharmacy customers seeking opioids for nonmedical purposes. When suspicious orders are filled, highly dangerous controlled substances are diverted into the hands of unauthorized users and the illegal black market, fueling the opioid epidemic.

According to the DEA, over 2.75 billion milligrams of opioids were distributed in Oklahoma in 2015. An estimated 845 million milligrams were distributed in the 14 counties of the Cherokee Nation. That averages out to between 360 and 720 pills per year for every prescription opioid user in the Cherokee Nation. Based on CDC reports, deaths from opioid-related overdoses more than doubled within the Cherokee Nation between 2003 and 2014. For adults within the Cherokee Nation, overdose deaths now outnumber deaths due to car accidents.

“These companies must be held accountable for their gross negligence, which has fueled the opioid epidemic. We deserve better,” said Cherokee Nation Attorney General Todd Hembree. “They enabled prescription opioids to fall into illicit distribution channels, failed to alert regulators of extreme volume, and incentivized sales of these drugs with financial bonuses. We will not stand by while children are born addicted to opioids and our citizens die.”

The Cherokee Nation is represented by special counsel Richard Fields of Fields PLLC and Boies Schiller Flexner partners Steve Zack and William Ohlemeyer.

“The defendants will need to answer for turning a blind eye to the grave harm they are causing individuals, their families and communities, which are left to pick up the pieces,” said Fields.

“We look forward to presenting this evidence to the Cherokee tribal court so that the citizens most harmed by the opioid epidemic can get the justice they deserve,” said Ohlemeyer.

TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma— Cherokee Nation Attorney General Todd Hembree released the following statement today in response to McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health, Inc., AmerisourceBergen, CVS Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., filing a complaint in federal court asking for an injunction to prevent the Cherokee Nation’s recent lawsuit against them from proceeding in tribal court. In April, the Cherokee Nation sued the pharmacies and opioid distributors in Cherokee Nation tribal court, charging them with failing to prevent the flow of illegally prescribed opioids to men, women and children in the Cherokee Nation.

“The defendants have dumped massive quantities of lethal opioids on the Cherokee nation, putting profits over people. We will not be deterred in our quest for justice for the children and families that have been devastated by their actions,” said Cherokee Nation Attorney General Todd Hembree. “The defendants have a legal responsibility to make sure these powerful, highly addictive drugs get into the hands of only the people who need them.”

General Hembree also said, “the defendants' filing today is not just the usual attempt to delay and avoid justice, it's an attack on the very sovereignty of our nation and our ability to protect our families from the illegal activities of these companies that are causing extraordinary harm and suffering to our people."

The Cherokee Nation’s lawsuit is the first of its kind filed in the United States, as it is the first Attorney General civil case seeking to hold distributors and retailers responsible for their roles in perpetuating the opioid crisis. The Cherokee Nation is represented by Attorney General Todd Hembree and special counsel Richard Fields of Fields PLLC and Boies Schiller Flexner partners Steve Zack and William Ohlemeyer.